Orsborn: Garrett accepts a role in debacle

Garrett accepts a role in debacle
By Tom Orsborn

December 17, 2013 12:27 AM

IRVING — One day after he blamed Tony Romo for the first of two interceptions the quarterback threw in the final minutes of Sunday's embarrassing 37-36 loss to Green Bay, Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett admitted he also had a role in the colossal collapse.

“We should have done a better job,” Garrett said Monday. “I should have done a better job, the staff should have done a better job, Tony should have done a better job.”

In overcoming a 23-point third-quarter deficit, the Packers scored touchdowns on five straight possessions in the second half, which points to the Cowboys' NFL-worst defense as the main culprit in the agonizing defeat.

But many critics have focused on Dallas' decision to abandon the running game in the second half. DeMarco Murray finished with 134 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries, but he logged just seven carries in the second half even though the Cowboys possessed a 26-3 lead at the break.

“It's hard to explain, but the clock management by the Dallas Cowboys was about as bad as I've seen,” Fox analyst and Cowboys Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman said on the air.

Garrett was asked if he wished he had asserted his authority as head coach more to ensure that offensive coordinator Bill Callahan and Romo called more running plays in the second half.

“I think when you step back and look at it again, you probably would have wanted a little bit more balance and run the ball a little bit more,” Garrett said.

The most scrutinized decision came while the Cowboys were trying to protect a 36-31 lead with less than three minutes left. Facing second-and-6 at the Dallas 35, Romo received a play with the option to run or pass.

But instead of handing off to Murray, Romo chose to pass after seeing Green Bay had 10 men stacked at the line of scrimmage. His slant to Miles Austin was picked off by Packers cornerback Sam Shields, prompting Murray to slam his helmet to the ground after he reached the sideline.

Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo “should have done a better job” in the waning minutes of Sunday's 37-36 loss to the Packers, coach Jason Garrett said. But Garrett also put some of the blame for blowing a 23-point lead on himself and his staff.

Seven plays later, Green Bay took the lead on Eddie Lacy's 1-yard run. Romo threw another interception with 1:24 left to all but end the game, but receiver Cole Beasley was at fault there after stopping short on a route.

In addressing the first interception, Garrett made it clear the blame should mainly fall on Romo's shoulders.

“Sometimes it's OK on second-and-6 to hand the ball off, take your lumps and deal with the third down, force them to use another timeout and then just work that situation out,” Garrett said. “That's something we've discussed.”

But was it discussed forcefully enough?

“I don't want to get into all the details of how I communicate with Tony, but we have good lines of communication,” Garrett said. “(Sunday) we had good lines of communication. There are always cases as a coach that you look back and say, 'I should have done this, I should have done that.' There certainly were cases of that yesterday. And we, as a team, didn't handle that well enough. We should have handled it better.”

The Cowboys (7-7) can still make the playoffs by winning Sunday at Washington (3-11) and on Dec. 29 in the regular-season finale at home against Philadelphia (8-6).

But what happens if they don't? Is Garrett's job safe?

Owner Jerry Jones reminded reporters Sunday that he said last month Garrett would return next season. Garrett was asked if Jones has told him he would be safe no matter what happens in the final two games.

“I'm just focused on doing my job,” said Garrett, who is 28-26 as the team's coach.

Garrett said he is confident the Cowboys can snap their two-game losing streak against the Redskins and set up a playoffs-or-bust game against a division foe in the finale for the third straight year.

“We have a lot of history with these guys, and we've done a lot of great things,” Garrett said of the players. “We have a tremendous amount of belief in them as people and players.”

fuck you garrett you weasely piece of shit

jsmith6919 said:

fuck you garrett you weasely piece of shit

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Pretty much.

He's full of it.

Saying he has to "do a better job" and the players have to "do a better job" is a supreme cop out.

The correct answer is, "I should have committed more to winning the game, and that means I have to learn how to manage the clock."

All he has done since the loss is speak in vague terms, all of which ignore the fact he hasn't and probably will never commit to the run game.

You can't just chalk it up to the fact the OL sucks. We have shown the ability to run block the last few games.

Lip service to run haunts Cowboys

Cowboys will remain mediocre and bad on D by persisting with the passing game


Updated: December 17, 2013, 2:13 AM ET

By Jean-Jacques Taylor | ESPNDallas.com

IRVING, Texas -- The big lie at the Dallas Cowboys' Valley Ranch training complex is that coach Jason Garrett wants a balanced offense.

He doesn't. Not really.

If we look at his track record in seven seasons as an offensive coordinator and head coach, it tells us all we need to know. As long as Garrett controls the offense, the Cowboys will have a pass-first mentality.

Garrett is always quick with a plethora of excuses for why the Cowboys frequently abandon their running game, regardless of whether it's working. A sack, an incompletion or a dropped pass has never made Garrett shy away from throwing the ball.

Garrett's flawed approach cost the Cowboys a game Sunday as the Green Bay Packers rallied from a 23-point halftime deficit to beat the Cowboys 37-36.

If Garrett doesn't change the Cowboys' approach in their final two games, they will miss the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season, and he might not be the coach next season.

A day after one of the biggest embarrassments of his career, Garrett went into more detail about why DeMarco Murray carried only seven times in the second half after gaining 93 yards and a touchdown in the first half. "We're trying to win the football game. DeMarco knows that," Garrett said. "We want to give him every opportunity we can. He knows how much we appreciate him and how well he's playing, and we'll continue to give him opportunities if they're worthwhile."

Basically, Garrett said when Green Bay started the third quarter with a four-play, 80-yard drive, he figured the Cowboys would need to keep scoring points, so he wanted to be aggressive on offense.

"They continued to move the football, so for us to sit back and say we're going to take a knee would not have been the right approach," Garrett said. "We had to continue to drive the football the best way we know how to do it and score points on the other end."

See, that tells you everything you need to know about Garrett's thoughts on the running game. The Cowboys had a 19-point lead, but he panicked. Murray needs only 23 yards to become just the third Cowboys player since 2000 to gain 1,000 yards in a season. Emmitt Smith had 1,203 yards in 2000 and 1,021 in 2001. Julius Jones had 1,084 in 2006.

Murray ranks 10th in the NFL in rushing with 977 yards. He's the only player among that group with fewer than 200 carries, and he's the only player with more than 100 carries averaging more than 5.0 yards per carry.

It was criminal not to feed him the ball against Green Bay, considering 14 of his 18 carries gained at least 4 yards. He finished with 134 yards on 18 carries.

After the game, the Packers' defensive players admitted they couldn't stop Murray. Then again, every team the Cowboys play knows it doesn't have to stop Murray; it simply has to wait for Garrett, offensive coordinator Bill Callahan and quarterback Tony Romo to stop using him.

They do it all of the time.

Callahan loves the 5-yard pass more than the 5-yard run, and we all know Romo would rather complete a 5-yard pass than watch Murray run 5 yards.

This is a losing mentality. The Cowboys throw the ball 64.9 percent of the time. Only the Cleveland Browns (67.7) and Atlanta Falcons (68.3) throw it more.

Of the nine teams with the highest percentage of passing, only the New Orleans Saints (64.6) and Miami Dolphins (64.5) are above .500. The other seven teams are a combined 32-66.

It's not a coincidence.

We're talking about a coach and quarterback duo that ran it nine times and threw it 54 times in a win over the Minnesota Vikings, then became indignant when questioned about the absurd run-pass ratio.

Garrett should've understood the result was good, but the process was incredibly flawed. No one is asking Garrett to run the ball 50 percent of the time. Or even 60 percent. It's about using common sense.

Romo had completions of 27, 22 and 20 yards in the first half of Sunday's loss. Each came on a run fake. That's one good reason to run the ball.

Another reason to run the ball is the Cowboys' raggedy defense. Anything Garrett can do to keep it off the field and shorten the game, he should do, because it is historically bad.

Injuries have compromised the unit, so Garrett must protect it. He didn't against Green Bay.

Near the end of the third quarter, the defense had just allowed a 12-play, 80-yard touchdown drive. The Packers were gaining momentum and the Cowboys needed to regroup.

Murray dropped a pass on first down and Romo threw an incompletion to James Hanna on second down. He was sacked on third down, and Chris Jones wound up punting from the back of his end zone.

The drive took just 44 seconds -- a disservice to a defense that should raise a toast every time it forces a punt.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

"There are always cases as a coach you look back and say, 'I could've done this, or I should've done that,'" Garrett said. "We, as a team, didn't handle that well enough, and we should've handled it better."

Until Garrett opts to change instead of just talking about it, the Cowboys will continue to be the epitome of mediocre.

boozeman said:

The drive took just 44 seconds -- a disservice to a defense that should raise a toast every time it forces a punt.

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The Frenchie doesn't make me laugh very often, but this one got a chuckle out of me.

Daddy Garrett should have done a better job in pulling out.

ESPN: Cowboys' low football IQ is puzzling

ESPN: Cowboys' low football IQ is puzzling

Cowboys' low football IQ is puzzling



By Gregg Easterbrook | ESPN.com


Multiple choice question on the entrance examination for Princeton University:

When holding a big lead in the second half, a football team should:

1. Keep the clock moving.
2. Run the ball.
3. Employ clock-management tactics.
4. Pass, pass, pass, pass!

Apparently Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett, a Princeton grad, chose Answer 4. How else to explain the Boys' epic collapse versus the Green Bay Packers? From the point at which Dallas took a 26-3 lead, the home team executed 23 passing plays and seven rushing plays. The pass plays resulted in eight incompletions, including two interceptions. The turnovers provided the visitors the ball and incompletions stopped the clock, allowing Green Bay time for a comeback that resulted in a lead with 1:31 remaining. Had Dallas simply run up the middle for no gain rather than throwing incompletions, the Cowboys would have prevailed.

The Boys' lack of football IQ was, if anything, even worse than the final fiasco suggests. Taking possession with 4:17 remaining and a five-point lead, Dallas threw incomplete, stopping the clock, then a moment later threw the interception that positioned Green Bay for its go-ahead score. On the day, the Cowboys rushed for 134 yards on 18 carries, a sparkling 7.4-yard per rush average. Adjusting for sacks, the Cowboys had 51 passing plays, for a 6.5-yard average gain per passing down. Though Dallas was getting better yardage on the ground than in the air -- Green Bay has one of the league's lowest-ranked run defenses -- in a clock-killer situation, the Cowboys kept throwing.

"We probably could have run the ball more," Garrett declared after the game. No kidding! The Boys have 21 coaches, and this apparently did not occur to any of them at the time.

Game in and game out, the Dallas Cowboys, led by a Princeton graduate and representing the state that is the center of American football culture, display low football IQ.

Two seasons ago, Dallas led Detroit 27-3 in the second half at home. From that point until the Lions capped their last-second comeback victory, the Boys ran 12 passing plays and 11 rushing plays, resulting in three interceptions, including two returned for touchdowns, and five incompletions that stopped the clock. In that contest, too, had Dallas simply run up the middle for no gain in the second half, the Cowboys would have prevailed.

There's something beyond low football IQ in the latest Cowboys meltdown. Postgame, Garrett noted that in the second half, Green Bay kept one of its safeties near the line of scrimmage, anticipating rush -- why on Earth would the Packers expect that? -- which made passing plays attractive. It's true that only one safety "high" is a look any quarterback would like. But the Cowboys didn't need to make passing plays, they needed to keep the clock ticking!

Garrett is a former college quarterback. Dallas owner Jerry Jones gave Romo the league's largest salary. Jones has invested heavily in receivers, but not in backs. It's as if the Dallas braintrust thinks that only big numbers in the passing game count in modern football.

In their October home loss to the Broncos, the Cowboys took possession with the game tied, 2:39 remaining, holding all their timeouts. High-IQ football would be to work the ball slowly down the field, exhaust the clock and kick the winning field goal with seconds showing. Instead Dallas went sack, interception, watch Broncos win. This may be a pass-wacky era -- the top of the passing stats page is dominated by winning teams while woeful Washington and Buffalo are third and fourth in rushing . But because throwing the ball is the epitome of the modern game isn't a reason to throw away a win -- which the hapless Cowboys just did.

Of course being in the NFC East, they remain very much alive. If the NFL East title comes down to the low-IQ Cowboys at the anything-can-happen Eagles on Dec. 29, one of the wackiest games ever may be in store.